Elon Musk embraces Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Oct. 5, 2024.
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Tesla shares closed up nearly 9% on Monday, continuing to ride a postelection rally as President-elect Donald Trump, closely allied with CEO Elon Musk, begins to set up his presidential cabinet.
Analysts at Wedbush reiterated their outperform rating on the stock, joining earlier sunny outlooks reacting to Tuesday’s results. Tesla recently reclaimed its $1 trillion market cap after surging nearly 30% last week.
“We are raising our price target on Tesla to $400 from $300 as we believe the Trump White House win will be a gamechanger for the autonomous and AI story for Tesla and Musk over the coming years,” the Wedbush analysts wrote.
Musk’s wealth rocketed past $300 billion in the days since Trump’s decisive electoral win, further cementing his place as the richest man in the world and joining the wave of gains across the technology and crypto sector since postelection trading began.
It is unclear whether Musk, who spent at least $130 million on Trump’s campaign, will receive an official title in the second Trump White House or if he will influence policy decisions from his inner circle.
Either way, Musk stands to earn potentially billions from new government contracts with his companies, on top of the $19 billion SpaceX has already been awarded. Some or all of the 19 known ongoing federal lawsuits and investigations into his companies may begin to wind down entirely.
“It is difficult to judge how Elon Musk’s increasingly close public relationship with President Trump could benefit Tesla, but this needs to be monitored closely,” analysts from Bank of America wrote in a note last week, raising their Tesla price target from $265 to $350.
Trump has said previously he may cut the federal $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, and those credits have historically helped drive sales of Tesla vehicles.
At one of his final campaign rallies, Trump suggested Musk could be put in charge of “government efficiency,” and he was present on Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy two days ago.
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom, Annie Palmer and Lora Kolodny contributed reporting.
